Sure, the whole media-did-me-wrong story line is perhaps the most tired subplot in all of sports, but, "I was truly scarred by the things I heard before the draft," Newton says. "Now I feel like I'm ready to come out of my shell. I know I have the talent to change this game, and I don't see no ceiling. So I'm not knocking on the door, like tap-tap-tap. I'm gonna kick that door in, like SWAT."

On a Tuesday afternoon in late November, the Panthers' record-breaking rookie quarterback is inside Bank of America Stadium getting a quick trim from his personal barber -- provided, of course, he can sit still long enough.

Yeah, it's clear Cam has no intentions of letting what the media say about his "cockiness" get the better of him. Got to love this kid. He seems to be saying what many are thinking but afraid to say...You know political correctness...lol

And as I stated before during the The Golden Calf of Bristol replacing Cam on the cover of NFLN magazine discussion, much rather see Cam on ESPN than NFLN...got my wish..

"I blame JaMarcus Russell and to some degree Vince Young. If you have the opportunity to make that kind of money doing something you love to do, why would you screw it up? I'm trying to be a trailblazer. If Baylor's Robert Griffin decides to come out, I want people to say 'He can be the next Cam Newton' instead of 'He's gonna be the next JaMarcus Russell.'"

it's cool that we're finally starting to see national perspective on cam's relationship to his team, and the tensions that have arisen between his maniacal drive for winning and the status quo of the locker room.

Around midseason, with his frustrations about to blow, Newton's cellphone rang. It was Ray Lewis, the Ravens' future Hall of Fame linebacker. "Baby boy," crackled the voice on the other end of the line, "whatcha so mad about? Listen here, you ain't going through nothing that anybody that is great hasn't been through."

A defiant Newton swallowed hard, stood up straight and tried to explain himselfand Lewis filled his ear with laughter. "Four years," Lewis shouted. It took him four years to get Baltimore to .500. (In Year 5, the Ravens won the Super Bowl.) "This isn't who you are," Lewis said. "Why ain't you smiling? Get a damn smile on your face." To a man, Newton's teammates and coaches say they welcome his outspoken, unrelenting competitive fire. But if Ray Lewis calls out of the blue to say you're too intense, maybe it's time to chill a bit. "People are gonna respect the Panthers," says Newton. "And I want what I do as a quarterback to be scary. I want people to be in fear. I want it, and I'm gonna get it. But I realize now it's a process."

"I had people who can't throw a football telling me my mechanics were wrong," says Newton. "I had people taking shots at my character, classifying me as a thug, as a hoodlum. After Week 3 or 4, all these same people wanted an interview. I said, 'You were giving me all this crap and had so much to say about how I was gonna play, and now you wanna talk? No. Just sit back and watch the show, man.'"

Looks like Cam kept that mental chamber fresh, even after unloading it those first two weeks for 800+ yards.

I hope he never grants an interview to those that were harsher than any 'analyst' should be, like Nawrocki

It's a style of quarterbacking Newton calls the Blender, dreamed up in the backyard of his childhood home in College Park, Ga. Under center, Nerf ball in hand, Newton mimicked the pre-snap mental wizardry of Manning. Then he'd mix in a little of Tom Brady's steadiness in the pocket and downfield touch. And when needed, Newton would add an explosive open-field style borrowed from Michael Vick. It's hard to fathom, but just five years removed from his backyard, it is Newton who now seems destined to be the player who completes the evolution of the multidimensional quarterback developed by Fran Tarkenton, Randall Cunningham, Steve Young and Vick.

Something else that I never knew about Cam. Has a name for his own style of quarterbacking and everything.

It's funny that we don't have the other QBs calling out the failures of QBs who take their jobs for granted. I guess Cam realized that QB like himself are the minority and are more watched and scrutinzed than the others.

He made a very good point. Here's hoping he will be continuing the trend of such QBs like Warren Moon, Steve Young, and others before him who understood what they were up against and their responsibilities. Here's hoping he's given a fair chance, especially considering how he has been treated by the media despite the obvious.

Around midseason, with his frustrations about to blow, Newton's cellphone rang. It was Ray Lewis, the Ravens' future Hall of Fame linebacker. "Baby boy," crackled the voice on the other end of the line, "whatcha so mad about? Listen here, you ain't going through nothing that anybody that is great hasn't been through."

Huge compliment for a guy like Ray Lewis to take the time to call... Ray sees the greatness.

"Some people are afraid to say what they want, but I'm not," says Newton. "I want to be the symbol of success in this league. I want to win multiple Super Bowls. To get there, you have to have a relentless will to be something far greater than what you are. You gotta have that edge."